Leone Lifts Indians Past Brick Memorial in Thriller

With time winding down in their first-round match-up with the sixth-seeded Mustangs, things did not look good for Toms River South (14-3-1, no. 22).

Trailing 1-0 in a defensive battle — and captain Jay Malone being shadowed throughout the night — the thought of a comeback seemed almost impossible for the Indians.

"I just told them to keep it simple," Toms River South head coach Bill McKinnon said, "Sometimes it doesn't have to be the best shot to beat the goalie, just the quickest one."

Out of a timeout, Todd Unger ripped the game-tying goal past Kevin Talty with 1:15 remaining in the game to give the Indians some life.

"Todd [Unger] doesn't need a lot of time to wind up," McKinnon said, "He has a pretty good snap shot."

The goal would send the teams into overtime. After back-and forth action, Sam Leone was left open in front of the net on a broken play and slithered his shot past Talty, giving Toms River South the dramatic 2-1 win.

"The seeding didn't really mean a whole lot," McKinnon said, "We saw [Brick Memorial] a few weeks ago, they are a good team."

The defending state champions fell behind with 7:06 remaining when Steven McDermitt of Brick Memorial put his shot past Pat Kearny to break the scoreless tie.

Kearny made 21 saves on the night and looked strong despite suffering a bruised collarbone a week earlier.

"Pat [Kearny] looked fully recovered," McKinnon said, "His mobility didn't seem to be affected."

Jay Malone, the star for the Indians all season was shadowed by Memorial captain Jay Francecshini, limiting his ability to jump in the play offensively.

"We saw he was going to be shadowed right off the bat," McKinnon said, "So we tried a lot of different things and the other guys stepped up a lot."

"Normally our second line is more of a defensive line, but to have them score an overtime winner in a playoff game is huge."

The Indians were scoreless on both of their power plays and they killed off their only penalty of the night.

Jesse LeGrand and Malone assisted on Unger's game-tying goal, which came right off the face-off.

Next, the Indians will travel to Red Bank to take on Red Bank Catholic in the semi-finals of the Handchen Cup. That game is at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday.

"We'll see," McKinnon said when asked about Tuesday night's match-up. "They're a little bit of a deeper team than we are but if you hustle, work hard and play your position, good things can happen."